Video & DVD

(2000, Alliance Atlantis), dir. Don Roos w/ Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow. Affleck is an ad executive who gives up his airplane seat to a young husband and father, and when the plan crashes he feels obliged to take care of the widow (Paltrow). Affleck and Paltrow, who were once real-life lovers, show enough tenderness toward one another to confirm that they must have had a good breakup. Too bad the story doesn't go anywhere new -- we know how each scene will play out, how the characters will react before they do -- and the result is boredom. NN

(2000, Fox), dir. George Tillman Jr. w/ Robert De Niro, Cuba Gooding Jr. Men Of Honor is a mess. Gooding stars as the first black man to become a navy diver, and De Niro is the crusty bastard who first tries to stop him and then encourages him. Call it Beaches For Boys, with the men bonding in that stern-faced, I'll-never-give-up military way. Both actors are allowed off their acting leashes and both are guilty of horrible choices, especially De Niro, who becomes a caricature of himself when he doesn't have a director who'll rein him in. N

Big-screen rating: N (IR)

THE YARDS

(2000, Alliance Atlantis), dir. James Gray w/ Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix. An ex-con with a heart of gold (Wahlberg) falls back into trouble when he gets a job working for a corrupt subway-train manufacturer. Gray (Little Odessa) likes to make movies about small-time New York criminals with sick mothers and tragic flaws. This sombre drama boasts a moody cast -- Wahlberg, Phoenix, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, James Caan and Charlize Theron -- who walk around with very worried looks on their faces even when they're supposed to be happy. I like Gray's elegiac tone, and Wahlberg continues to prove he's an honest-to-god actor and not a second-rate rapper with nice pecs. NNN

Big-screen rating: It starts out strong and then gets tangled up in its own plot developments. NN (JH)

Also this week

South Park: Timmy

DVD pick of the week

LAWEWNCE OF ARABIA

(Columbia Tri-Star, 1962), dir. David Lean w/ Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness. It's ironic that one of the great wide-screen epics designed to trounce television now comes packaged for the small screen. But that's no reason not to lap it up. Lean's story of the desert adventurer is as satisfying as ever, thanks to astonishing attention to emotional and visual detail in the midst of its colossal sweep. Columbia's maxed-out DVD includes the film on one disc, subtitled in seven languages. A second disc boasts four documentaries on T.E. Lawrence and the making of the film, footage from the 1962 New York premiere, trailers and an interview with Steven Spielberg, who, not surprisingly, is a fan. 227 minutes. NNNNN CAMERON BAILEY